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Post by charleselan on Oct 25, 2021 12:26:37 GMT
Quite by chance I came across this outstanding little film of the first season of Formula Junior racing in England the other evening. The year is 1960 and a new feeder class to single seater racing has been introduced, in later years it morphed into Formula Three.
In the UK this first year of Formula Junior introduced the world of single seater racing to the man many of us rate as the greatest of all time, one Jim Clark. Another giant in the motor sporting world also took part in this series driving a Cooper Austin (BMC) and this was the former multiple motorcycle road race world champion John Surtees. Other notables that year were Jim's team mate Trevor Taylor already resplendent in his bright yellow helmet and race suit; Trev was actually joint champion with Jim that year both of course driving for Team Lotus in what has often been called the cigar shaped Lotus 18 cars with Cosworth Ford engines.
The quality of the film is outstanding and it appears to have been produced by John Blunsden's Motor Racing organisation who produced not only a very good monthly magazine but also an invaluable little Year Book.
I have also come across some other really excellent films of racing from the 1960's which I will post as time goes by.
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Post by René on Oct 26, 2021 11:15:34 GMT
Wonderful 'time machine' video!
I also heard 'Ken Tyrrell with the Cooper' mentioned. Lot's of famous names and beautiful little cars.  |
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Post by chrisb on Oct 26, 2021 14:01:17 GMT
that is really fabulous John, cheers for that, some special drivers there and the circuits, especially Oulton Park, with those trees and such,
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Post by Carl on Oct 27, 2021 17:51:27 GMT
Quite by chance I came across this outstanding little film of the first season of Formula Junior racing in England the other evening. The year is 1960 and a new feeder class to single seater racing has been introduced, in later years it morphed into Formula Three. In the UK this first year of Formula Junior introduced the world of single seater racing to the man many of us rate as the greatest of all time, one Jim Clark. Another giant in the motor sporting world also took part in this series driving a Cooper Austin (BMC) and this was the former multiple motorcycle road race world champion John Surtees. Other notables that year were Jim's team mate Trevor Taylor already resplendent in his bright yellow helmet and race suit; Trev was actually joint champion with Jim that year both of course driving for Team Lotus in what has often been called the cigar shaped Lotus 18 cars with Cosworth Ford engines. The quality of the film is outstanding and it appears to have been produced by John Blunsden's Motor Racing organisation who produced not only a very good monthly magazine but also an invaluable little Year Book. I have also come across some other really excellent films of racing from the 1960's which I will post as time goes by. John, An excellent introduction to Formula Junior. An interesting highlight is the slow motion sequence at Oulton Park (at 13:20), which shows the rippling distortion of tyres across the slight bumps which the filmmakers were smart to include.
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Post by charleselan on Oct 27, 2021 18:11:00 GMT
René; Chris & Carl, It is a superb little film, something that I have been hoping too see for years now. Fortunately there are quite a lot of films from the 1960's now being digitalised and coming out on YouTube. The action shots of Jim Clark in his Lotus 18 at Oulton Park are to be treasured, I began making a 1/43rd scale model of this car having modified an SMTS white metal kit of the F1 version and had very few good photos to work from, I can finish it now and be happy wit the result. I commented earlier about Trevor Taylor and his yellow race suit and helmet which was a bit of a hallmark of his, however in some of the shots one can see that he even had the cockpit of his Team Lotus 18 decked out in yellow. Yes; René we see a shot of Ken Tyrrell pushing one of his Coopers, all while having a cigarette in his mouth, never saw that in later years thankfully as JYS would not have approved  . Ken actually ran Cooper cars for many years in both FJ and then in F3/2 before moving to Matra and then his own manufactured cars. Quite unusually FJ cars had to run wheels and tyres that were the same size front and rear which I think was stipulated by the regulations to match those of the engine manufacture used. JC |
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Post by mikael on Oct 27, 2021 20:43:27 GMT
Highly appreciated JC; thank you kindly. For me, there's something magical about the formula cars of the 60's; they continue to fascinate me much more than cars from any other era.
Formula Junior appears to have been a good initiative, but it was a shame that the costs to participate at the sharp end went "overboard" so soon. Formula Ford was really the "Columbus's egg".
Jim Clark was a phenomenon indeed - a driver out of this world. But the phenomenon of Jim Clark also illustrates a hard and merciless fact about motor racing: if you dream about becoming successful, you need to be able to compete at the front right from the start - otherwise you can just as well forget it ...
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Post by charleselan on Oct 28, 2021 20:47:38 GMT
Mikael,
So pleased you liked the film, it is amazing for so many reasons. I just loved the cars of that time and also the little one litre F3 cars featured in the other film I have placed elsewhere, absolutely gorgeous things.
What people forget when looking at Jim Clark's career is that he went straight into F1 in 1960, alongside the FJ program, and had little international racing experience except for one or two big old sports car races in a Lister Jaguar. His first season might not look that remarkable on first sight to some today, but just imagine the likes of Hamilton; Senna and Schumacher stepping straight out of karts into F1. The only modern day guy who got near that was Kimi who went from karts to Formula Renault and then F1.
In Jim's second season (1961) he was up against the far more powerful Ferrari 156 Sharknose's who were all dominant accept for Stirling Moss' genius on two occasions. However Jim Clark also produce some outstanding drives that year but with little luck. So his first two years in F1 were without any wins, but hardly surprising when all things considered.
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Post by chrisb on Oct 29, 2021 6:36:37 GMT
totally John, despite the fact that Jimmy also managed a brilliant 3rd place at the 1960 Portuguese GP in a 'start-line special- and wasn't he lying 4th in his first ever GP, when yet again Lotus queerbox derailed his early points, and of course much overlooked in 1961 were his practice times at Monaco and but for the dreaded Lotus unreliability would have been competing with Stirling in that amazing day, only to reinforce what was clear at Zandvoort, finishing a fine 3rd again with the shark-noses giving Phil a helluva time,
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Post by charleselan on Oct 29, 2021 10:11:29 GMT
Oh! yes Chris the "start line special" in Portugal 1960. Jim had shunted the car in practice, and as I read in one of my many Lotus books the team had no welding wire available to repair the damaged space frame chassis so they used some fence wire. Can you imagine that, talk about Heath Robinson.
The fact that Jim brought the car home in third place speaks volumes of his ability.
Another thing that amazes me is the fact that he went to Spa for the first time in the Lister Jaguar, I think 1959, and what a baptism of fire that must have been. I find it hard to imagine what it must have been like for him arriving at that place having only driven around UK circuits up until then. The speed and danger at Spa must have been truly terrifying, made even worse by seeing the terrible accident that befell Archie Scott-Brown.
Jim also mentioned the effect of having Masten Gregory blast past him at a speed he thought truly unimaginable. One year later he was back there in the Belgian GP in a Lotus 18 and it was absolute carnage in one of, if not the most horrific days in grand prix racing. He came close to calling it a day then and there, so shocking the whole thing was for him.
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Post by Carl on Oct 29, 2021 17:59:36 GMT
Oh! yes Chris the "start line special" in Portugal 1960. Jim had shunted the car in practice, and as I read in one of my many Lotus books the team had no welding wire available to repair the damaged space frame chassis so they used some fence wire. Can you imagine that, talk about Heath Robinson. The fact that Jim brought the car home in third place speaks volumes of his ability. Another thing that amazes me is the fact that he went to Spa for the first time in the Lister Jaguar, I think 1959, and what a baptism of fire that must have been. I find it hard to imagine what it must have been like for him arriving at that place having only driven around UK circuits up until then. The speed and danger at Spa must have been truly terrifying, made even worse by seeing the terrible accident that befell Archie Scott-Brown. Jim also mentioned the effect of having Masten Gregory blast past him at a speed he thought truly unimaginable. One year later he was back there in the Belgian GP in a Lotus 18 and it was absolute carnage in one of, if not the most horrific days in grand prix racing. He came close to calling it a day then and there, so shocking the whole thing was for him. In that Portuguese Grand Prix, does anyone know why Stirling Moss was disqualified? |
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Post by charleselan on Oct 29, 2021 18:27:22 GMT
Oh! yes Chris the "start line special" in Portugal 1960. Jim had shunted the car in practice, and as I read in one of my many Lotus books the team had no welding wire available to repair the damaged space frame chassis so they used some fence wire. Can you imagine that, talk about Heath Robinson. The fact that Jim brought the car home in third place speaks volumes of his ability. Another thing that amazes me is the fact that he went to Spa for the first time in the Lister Jaguar, I think 1959, and what a baptism of fire that must have been. I find it hard to imagine what it must have been like for him arriving at that place having only driven around UK circuits up until then. The speed and danger at Spa must have been truly terrifying, made even worse by seeing the terrible accident that befell Archie Scott-Brown. Jim also mentioned the effect of having Masten Gregory blast past him at a speed he thought truly unimaginable. One year later he was back there in the Belgian GP in a Lotus 18 and it was absolute carnage in one of, if not the most horrific days in grand prix racing. He came close to calling it a day then and there, so shocking the whole thing was for him. In that Portuguese Grand Prix, does anyone know why Stirling Moss was disqualified? According to the man himself in the book "Stirling Moss - My cars My career" he was disqualified for attempting to start the car against the flow of traffic after hitting some straw bales four laps from the end of the race, and that after a race ruined by mechanical problems. Stirling says in the book he did exactly what he supported Mike Hawthorne doing two years before which gave Mike the title and cost himself the championship. Ironically Mike was not penalised but Stirling was two years later. I bet Teflonso would have thrown a "hizzy fit" if that had been him . |
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Post by Carl on Oct 30, 2021 0:04:04 GMT
In that Portuguese Grand Prix, does anyone know why Stirling Moss was disqualified? According to the man himself in the book "Stirling Moss - My cars My career" he was disqualified for attempting to start the car against the flow of traffic after hitting some straw bales four laps from the end of the race, and that after a race ruined by mechanical problems. Stirling says in the book he did exactly what he supported Mike Hawthorne doing two years before which gave Mike the title and cost himself the championship. Ironically Mike was not penalised but Stirling was two years later. I bet Teflonso would have thrown a "hizzy fit" if that had been him . John, Thanks, and you'd win your bet hands down!  It's an embarrassment to the sport that two of the finest drivers are as thick as bricks. Saint Lewis would collapse next to his disqualified Mercedes and moan that someone doesn't want him to win. I bet Stirling Moss, who was very smart, push-started his car on a downward slope because only very stupid drivers would push a car uphill and expect it would start. Should he have accepted defeat? Cheers, Carl |
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Post by charleselan on Oct 31, 2021 12:34:31 GMT
According to the man himself in the book "Stirling Moss - My cars My career" he was disqualified for attempting to start the car against the flow of traffic after hitting some straw bales four laps from the end of the race, and that after a race ruined by mechanical problems. Stirling says in the book he did exactly what he supported Mike Hawthorne doing two years before which gave Mike the title and cost himself the championship. Ironically Mike was not penalised but Stirling was two years later. I bet Teflonso would have thrown a "hizzy fit" if that had been him . John, Thanks, and you'd win your bet hands down! It's an embarrassment to the sport that two of the finest drivers are as thick as bricks. Saint Lewis would collapse next to his disqualified Mercedes and moan that someone doesn't want him to win. I bet Stirling Moss, who was very smart, push-started his car on a downward slope because only very stupid drivers would push a car uphill and expect it would start. Should he have accepted defeat? Cheers, Carl Carl, That is exactly what Stirling Moss did, push start the Lotus on the downward slope against the flow of race traffic which was fine two years earlier but not in 1960. Stirling was a pretty sharp individual and in this same part of his book he refers to Rob walker purchasing the Lotus 18 as its as obvious that was what they needed to be competitive. There was no special treatment even though the driver was Moss, just a straight forward purchase. later in the year while sat in the pit lane Stirling noticed that the factory Team Lotus cars had suddenly been fitted with wider rear wheels and tyres, but none of the customer teams had been advised of this modification. Typical Colin Chapman deal there. He mentions that Rob Walker had to request the bigger wheels and place an order for them, Chapman obviously felt that he did not need to have a good customer service . Cheers John |
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. Ken actually ran Cooper cars for many years in both FJ and then in F3/2 before moving to Matra and then his own manufactured cars.
It's an embarrassment to the sport that two of the finest drivers are as thick as bricks. Saint Lewis would collapse next to his disqualified Mercedes and moan that someone doesn't want him to win.